The Metamorphosis of Kuroko Tetsuya
by Laundry Day
Summary: In his first year of middle school, Kuroko Tetsuya joins a gang. AU.
1. 00: decay

**A/N:** Finished my exams. Woo.

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00.  
decay

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There once lived a caterpillar.

It was smaller than most caterpillars and was very weak.

Thankfully, it was hard for most predators to notice the caterpillar.

Actually, it was hard for anyone to notice the caterpillar.

**.:.**

There's blood oozing out of his chest. He's lying on the pavement in some dirty, shifty parking lot and there's _blood _oozing out of his chest. He tries to sit up and reprimands himself for doing such a stupid thing because there's blood coming out of the bullet hole in his chest. Not only that, but there was also still a bunch of people shooting at each other, so obviously getting up after being shot at was a bad idea.

"Shit! Tetsu-kun's been shot!" Aomine. That was Aomine, right? Wait no, Aomine was dead. He was the body lying face down next to him.

Midorima? No, he was dead, too. The green-haired boy was also next to him. He was lying on his back, seven bullet holes decorating it. His hand, ironically, was still clutching his lucky item for the week.

"Get him out of here while I finish them off!" OK, he knew that was Akashi's voice. Only Akashi had that tone of authority in his voice. Moreover, Akashi was too smart to be hit like Midorima, Aomine, and himself.

He feels himself being dragged away.

"Don't worry; you'll be okay, Tetsu-kun." Ah, that was Momoi, wasn't it? How stupid of him. She was, after all, the only one who called him Tetsu-kun.

He wonders where she's taking him. Wherever it was, it was thankfully far away from the battleground. He could just barely hear sounds of bullets and screaming. He hopes Momoi isn't taking him to a hospital. But Momoi is smarter than that. She knows she can't take him there. They'd be screwed if she did. Whatever underground clinic she takes him, he silently prays it's somewhat clean.

**.:. **

Soon, with right amount of time and nourishment, the caterpillar began weaving his cocoon.

He began weaving a little later than the others did, but he liked to do things at his own pace.

Slowly but surely, the caterpillar had weaved himself a nice and cozy cocoon and was resting happily in it.

**.:. **

His thoughts shift to whether or not he's going to die – which was a high probability considering he was shot in the chest – and thinks about how his life could have been before all of this.

That one guy, he recalls. That one who he met at the basketball court a few months before this. The really tall one. Kiyoshi was his name, right? He got out, didn't he? He got out before things got too bad. He went back to school, joined a basketball team and was now in the midst of playing in a championship.

Kuroko could be like that. A basketball player instead of what he was now. They all could be like that. Him, Aomine, Akashi, Kise, Midorima, Murasakibara, and even Momoi. While Momoi couldn't play alongside them, there were girl teams, weren't there? She could have even been their coach with her skills in analysis, too.

"You'll be OK," Momoi repeats. He isn't sure if it's to assure him or herself anymore. "You'll be fine after this, Tetsu-kun."

_Don't pretend for me, Momoi, _he thinks with a wry smile. He had always gotten mad at Momoi for losing hope in her future, but here he was losing hope in all of theirs.

**.:.**

Except, when it was finally time for the caterpillar to get out of his cocoon, he found that while everyone else had become a beautiful butterfly, he remained the same.


	2. 01: Kuroko

**A/N:** I'm not dead. Just really stressed with school and junk. Please enjoy this.

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01.  
Kuroko

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This caterpillar wanted to be a beautiful butterfly; he wanted to be noticed.

When he finally became a beautiful butterfly, he was eaten.

**.:.**

When Kuroko was a kid, he was missed a lot. But not in the sense of longing and wishing that you could just reach over and be next someone and soak up their existence. No, it was in the sense that he was overlooked. Never seen. Always invisible.

His parents, shortly after he turned five, barely noticed him. He had to repeat himself several times when his teachers took the attendance because they always assumed he was absent. His "friends" always forgot about him whenever they played together at recess. He's never had a partner for a school project before.

Everything about him felt like a lit match that was constantly being blown on – always wavering, always seconds away from no longer existing.

It frightened him.

He wanted them to know he existed. He wanted to shake people and scream, "Look at me! I'm here! I've always been here!_ Notice me!_"

"You all ready?" Akashi said, his red eyes gleaming in excitement. He looked feral, yet composed. He was oozing with a sense of unpredictable preparedness. "There's no holding back once we do it. It's now or never."

They were in their hangout; an abandoned warehouse in midtown. They had cleaned it up rather nicely, but the outside and windows retained their rustic and abandoned looks to deter suspicion from police.

Akashi sat on a large red loveseat in the middle of the room, above the large lamps dangling from the high ceiling. A blue couch and four loveseats curved around Akashi, with a coffee table in the middle. On the blue couch was Kuroko himself, Satsuki and Aomine, and on the two of the love seats were Kise and Midorima. On the coffee table were several compact handguns. Or there was, at least.

Belatedly, Kuroko realized all eyes were on him. Everyone had taken a gun and was expectantly waiting for him to do the same. Kuroko frowned. Why was he thinking about the past now? He shook his head and reached for a handgun.

"Excellent," Akashi said, he leaned back in his seat, a calculative gleam in his eye. "The game plan is that Kuroko will go in first and take the first shots," he said, tossing him a silencer. "Shoot two of them. After that, we'll rush in and deal with the rest. They won't expect us now; they'll be thinking we're recovering from having most of our best guys down."

They all nodded.

"Let's kill every one of those bastards," Aomine said, practically growling. He shook with excitement. He was thirsty for blood. They all were.

"They took Murasakibaracchi from us," Kise said, tightening his grip on his gun. He was shaking, too. "I can't forgive them!"

Kuroko was shaking, too. Although unlike Kise, it wasn't out of anger, and unlike Aomine, it wasn't out of excitement. He was scared. He want to punch himself. There was nothing to be afraid of. He was the Phantom, the urban legend who silently killed all those who got into the way of his gang.

He felt a hand on his. He looked over and saw Satsuki staring at him, a serious look in her pink eyes. "We'll get them back for Muk-kun," she whispered to him, "we'll get them together. Don't worry."

He nodded, calming down. Here, he was a no good, rotten, dirty, and stupid gangster. But he had them. He had Satsuki, Aomine, Kise, Akashi, Midorima, and Kise. He couldn't lose them, he couldn't lose another one. Not again.

He'd rather be dead than not exist again.


	3. 02: Midorima

**A/N: **Last one for a bit. Enjoy.

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02.  
Midorima

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When this caterpillar weaved its cocoon, it ensured it would protect him from hungry predators.

But with every string silk he put into weaving it, it slowly killed him.

When the cocoon was made, he died.

**.:.**

Midorima had a problem: he was unlucky. No matter where his parents moved, and no matter how much of their money they spent, he was bullied relentlessly. He never blamed it on his arrogance or his inability to keep his head down and mouth shut. No, he blamed it on his luck.

He soon became obsessed with following horoscopes and ensuring he had his lucky item with him at all times in order to put a stop to his unluckiness. That somewhat stopped the bullying, but that was mostly because his bullies had found bigger and better things to do. Like join a gang.

Gangs were sprouting up again and many worried Japan's youth would act like the violent generations that came before them. They were right.

One day, his horoscope quoted a very famous statement that changed his world entirely: "when in Rome, do what the Romans do." He read this following a nasty confrontation with some gangsters on his way home. That day was the final straw for him. He had enough of being beaten up, of seeing his mother's eyes brimming with tears, and his father sadly shaking his head before going to the medicine cabinet to get the first-aid kit.

That explained why, instead of heading to school, he was crossing the street and heading to the abandoned warehouse his gang resided in. This explained why he only ever went to school to do test. This explained why a handgun, hidden in his coat, was pressed against his chest.

"Am I late?" he asked, sitting himself down on one of the love-seats. Everyone was there, looking somber. Of course they were, two days ago several of their own had been killed.

"No," Akashi said. Then, he leaned forward and said, "Okay, we're going to do it."

Kise's eyes grew wide. "Today?"

Akashi nodded.

Midorima leaned back, closing his eyes briefly. His brain was screaming at him to get out of there, to tell them they could go off and have fun killing themselves in a stupid, trivial gang fight.

"You all ready?" Akashi said. "There's no holding back once we do it. It's now or never."

He opened his eyes and stared at Akashi with determination. He would do it. He would kill whoever Akashi wanted him to kill, no question asked. It didn't matter that every lie he told his parents was like a jamming a knife into his heart. It didn't matter that his teachers all hated him, or pitied him. It didn't matter that his classmates thought he was throwing his future away.

Money couldn't buy him protection, but this did. Being here, with them, ensured he was safe. No matter how stupid and dangerous being here was, it kept the ones who tormented him away from him.

He'd be damned if he let that kind of protection slip through his fingers.


End file.
